Today the Daily Emerald ran another smarmy, biased story about making the campus smoke-free. If you’re wondering just how smarmy and biased, check out the lead:

Like other University students, Kira Fonarow worried about deadlines, classes and time management. But for her, the few minutes she spent walking across campus between classes were the most stressful.

Fonarow’s sensitive lungs and vocal cords could not function efficiently when she inhaled cigarette smoke, and it took a toll on her daily life.

Way to go, ODE. Way to go. Next time, why don’t you put a three-legged puppy in the lead? Better yet, why not just let the Clean Air Project write the article for you?

Like I said before, I don’t even smoke, but this whole idea is absurd. Barring people from smoking next to building entrances is at least justifiable in some way, but making acres and acres of open space smoke-free? Bitch, please! It’s starting to sound like this is going to be the Stupid Pet Project of the Year, with the Daily Emerald leading the charge.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 18:58 by CJ Ciaramella and is filed under Campus, Media, Ol' Dirty Emerald, Smoking Ban.
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You know, I was walking home from work yesterday when I noticed this strange establishment sandwiched between a real estate office and a barbershop. It was filled with people just sitting in there ingesting alcohol! So then I went a block and there was another one, advertising its alcohol right in the window. Some of the users at this one had spilled out onto the sidewalk, where they sitting at tables, taking their alcohol and talking in loud voices.

How long have these “alcohol stations” been around? Don’t people know that regardless of what the drug user thinks, they are causing harm to others, bystanders or pedestrians?

It can cause severe burns and often accelerates corrosion and rusting of metals. Plus, it has been found inside some forms of cancer and contributes to global warming!
Also, it is utilized in industrial applications as a solvent and coolant!

Some people are addicted to water. Seriously, they can’t live without it. Yet water use always results in having to pee. So, if you say one addictive drug has its place on campus why not allow “pee” stations to be located around campus? I mean what’s next?

“Seriously, if you say one addictive drug has its place on campus why not allow meth stations? The reason is, because regardless of what the drug user thinks, they are causing harm to others, bystanders or pedestrians.”

Ah, the ol’ reductio ad absurdum. Let’s swing it the other way:

If all addictive drugs cause harm to “others, bystanders or pedestrians” then we should ban them from campus. Therefore, coffee should be banned from campus, as it is an addictive drug.

Do you really want to defend the idea that all drug use causes harm to others, or are you just talking out of your ass?

Alright, so the fact of the matter is that smoking does kill. It doesn’t kill everyone, but it kills some people. (Right now, the mental image I have is of a giant cigarette going on a murdering rampage… Ha ha.)

However, I have asthma and it’s cold & flu season. This makes it suck to have to inhale others’ smoke. The great thing about being outside, though, is the ability to NOT have to inhale others’ smoke. I can walk anywhere else besides directly behind a smoker and be able to breathe clean air. (I do it with these things called legs & the will to not complain about things that aren’t that big of a deal).

Yeah, smokers suck sometimes. Sometimes they’re rude and they smoke where they shouldn’t… But between classes? In the open air? Give me a break.